going back to the simple things…….

I have been working on this one here and there for over a month. I started it and got stuck, so I left it out and I have been working on it little by little since then. Today, I really got on a roll and I got it finished. It NEVER takes me this long to complete a layout, but for some reason this one wanted to take it’s time, so I let it. Lots of odds and ends supplies here and just a lot of stuff! I like it and it will be put in my BOM. I am really enjoying doing these “for fun” layouts just because I want to. lol

Well, I have been spending the past few days trying to get things organized better around here. I had tons of clipped recipes and craft ideas that needed to be purged/filed. I am such a closet, magazine article and recipe hoarder! lol So, my big thing lately is to purge, purge, purge. Our recent move helped get this need going and I have tried to keep it up even though we are all moved in and settled. It has been a very freeing experience to get rid of so many things that we just don’t need and were bogging us down.

My table has been a mess for several days now as I try to get a system down that will fit me and my needs the most. The hardest part is fitting things to me! I tried to put together a control journal/master plan book/homemaking book. There are so many great ones that you can look at on-line. But, that just didn’t work for me. I am such a HUGE visual person. I need things right there and I hate to admit this, pretty. lol So, I found this really cute, wire desk-top file holder at Target and some fun, pink file folders at Wal-Mart. After I get things put together, I’ll post and let you know how I have things set up and how it’s working for me. I think it’s important to share, because I am getting a lot of my ideas from other people and putting them together in a way to suit me. Hopefully something I share can help someone get their home life a little more organized, too. I am embarrassed to admit that I have missed school activities and my children have missed birthday parties because I have lost important information. I can’t let this happen again because of my lack of organization! So more later and hopefully my table won’t be so messy the next time I check in. lol

I have been eying this bag of green mint chips in our grocery store for months and I finally broke down and bought a bag last week. The colors just were too much for my visual mind to resist. lol They are green mint chips and the company is Guittard. They taste like those mint melt-a-way candies that come in pink, yellow and green. How pretty are these chips???

So I made the cookies from a recipe off the back of the bag called: Polka Dot Cookies. They are DELICIOUS!!!!! If you like Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, then these are perfect for you. They taste just like them and actually BETTER!!!!

The dough for these cookies are more like a thick cake batter, so be sure to put the dough in the fridge for 15+ minutes before dropping onto your cookie sheet and keep the dough in the fridge the whole time that you’re not using it to stay firm. The dough is also very sticky. I used a small scooper to scoop the dough up with. I also kept out some of the green mints, just a small bowl full, and put several of them on top of each cookie before baking them. I thought that since they were called Polka Dot Cookies that she should really have some dots that you could see! Be sure to try these! They were easy and are absolutely incredible!

In top of double boiler over low heat, melt semisweet chips and butter, stirring constantly until smooth. Set aside to cool. In small bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In large bowl beat eggs, sugar and vinally until light. Blend in melted chocolate then dry ingredients. Stir in green mint chips and chill for 15 minutes or until stiff. Drop by well rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes; cookies will be soft in centers but will harden as they cool.

Notes: You can also melt the semisweet chocolate chips and butter in a bowl in the microwave. Stirring often and cooking for about 30 seconds at a time until it is melted. Reserve some of the green mint chips and use them to dot the tops of each cookie before baking, if desired. I store my cookies in plastic tubs with a slice of bread. It keeps my cookies from getting hard and crunchy. We like our cookies soft and chewy here!

Here’s how they look! Just YUMMY!!!!!

God Bless!
~d

*Another note- I did keep these in plastic tubs with a slice of bread to help keep them soft. Boy, did they ever stay soft! They were almost like brownies they were so soft. So, if you don’t want your cookies to be that soft, maybe just storing them in a plastic tub or zip-loc might work the best for you. 🙂

……….pizza that is. Here is a neat pizza reheating trick that I saw on TV awhile ago and it works wonderfully! I thought I would share because we ordered pizza from our favorite pizza parlor last night. It is a local business that has been around since 1953. We have been trying to support our local-owned businesses as much as we can and I urge you to do the same.

So here’s the trick:

Heat a skillet to medium-high or about the temperature you would cook a grilled cheese sandwich at. Place your cold pizza onto a plate and microwave around 45 seconds or until heated through. After you skillet is good and warm, place your microwaved pizza in the skillet and cook until the bottom crust is crisp to your liking. It only takes a couple of minutes, so watch it so that it doesn’t burn.

This makes your day-old pizza just about as good as when you got it fresh the night before! I’m actually having some right now for breakfast and loving it. lol Enjoy!

I worked on more pages for my South Dakota album last night. Are you getting tired of seeing these photos yet? lol I have done 29 pages so far and there are 100 pages to the album. My only concern right now is that it’s starting to get a little thick from the embellishments that I’m using, but we’ll see how that works out later. It seems like a lot left, but I can’t tell you how quick and easy this method of scrapbooking really is! I am really excited now because I have large amounts of photos from events like First Communion, jr. high graduation, trips to Colorado and Wisconsin, and my obsession with taking 100’s of photos every time we go to the zoo. lol I want to sit down one of these days and share how I planned this project. It wasn’t hard and I must admit I had fun going out and buying the stickers and such. So far I have only purchased 6 pieces of 12×12 paper. They coordinate with a sheet of the South Dakota stickers that I found. I haven’t had to buy any solid card stock because I was able to find enough in my stash, which was nice. So here is my next batch of pages:

I made some banana muffins for breakfast. We always buy bananas at the store every week. Sometimes we eat them all and sometimes I have several left over and way too ripe. I had 4 this morning that needed something done with them and I have been determined to not waste things so much, especially food! This is an AWESOME recipe. I found it at allRecipes.com and it uses 3 bananas and it has a delicious strusel topping which really adds something special to them. They were very good warm from the oven and my kids loved them! You can find the recipe here.

Here’s a bookmark that I made today. I was feeling the need to create something, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do a layout or anything like that. I’ve been reading A LOT all summer and I thought it would be fun to have a neat bookmark. Here’s what I made from the corner of an envelope. It slides just perfectly onto my page and keeps my place w/o me having to worry about it sliding out. It was a fun and quick project to satisfy my muse this afternoon. 🙂

Here’s what it looks like in my book……..I’m reading Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer right now. I got sucked into those darn books and I’ve been pretty useless and will be until I read all 4 of them. lol